Work: just another four letter word.

 

15^th. August 2020

When I worked for a living, I did a lot of twelve-hour shifts. Never liked them, but at least at the end of my shift I could go home, go to bed and relax for a while. Yesterday, Friday, my day began at around 6 am, and finished last night at 2.30 am — just over twenty hours. Looking after Pat is hard work. I did manage to get my head down but was up again at 7 am to start the shift again. There’s a lot to this ‘Full-time carer’ business. Pat’s situation isn’t good, but I have to accept it for what it is and hope I can keep her as comfortable as possible. We have a steady stream of nurses coming in. One came this afternoon and dressed Pat’s wounds, checked her physically and departed. Pat seems a little more settled at the moment. We have the positional bed in the front room, which has been an absolute boon: so much better for Pat. It’s amazing just how much support is out there, most of which is free.

Tuppence goes away tomorrow, probably for about three months or until this is all over. If Pat goes into a nursing home, I will have Tuppence back. It won’t make a great dal of difference to me in regard to how much time I have, but it will make a heap of difference to Tuppence.

In my book world, I see no changes in my sales or my expectations. Now that I don’t write, I ignore a lot of advice that comes pouring on to my PC by way of social media book groups. But one thing I do see, and understand, is that as a stand-alone writer, I have very little chance of attaining high rankings and sales in the indie world. I have even seen patronising comments about stand-alone writers as though we were some sort of interlopers in the world of series authors. I did get a smile on my face when I saw one author complaining that her book sales were down, and what on earth were Amazon up to for goodness sake? — “I’m trying to make a living as a writer!” — seemed to be the complaint as though Amazon should pull their socks up.

As I mentioned last week, I am joining 10K Readers author Mike Donald on a thriller promotion, due to begin on September 1^st. I downloaded Mike’s book, Louisiana Blood (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WVHCL6S) so that I could have something to say when the promotion gets under way. Mike’s book is set in the USA and UK, and what struck me about this was the fact that his characters are playing out their scenes in their own language (English of course), and that he uses double speech marks, which is normal for American publications. I’ve seen authors on some the FB groups of which I’m a member, worrying themselves over the use of the American way or the British way. They’re often told to go with whatever they feel comfortable with, something which Mike Donald is doing with no hang-ups. I’m hoping I can reach a lot more readers through Mike, but I have to say that in terms of which of us is the longest in tooth, it’s me. So perhaps Mike is hoping to hang on to my coat-tails. Hope I don’t let him down. Wish me luck!

Decisions, decisions.

8^th. August 2020 

I’m sitting here eating a bowl of cornflakes wondering what the day will bring in my on-going struggle with Pat. She’s fast asleep on the settee having been up since about 4.30 (and a pit stop during the night). I just love the way she catches up on her lost sleep while I mooch around, bleary-eyed, showered, changed and wondering why I’m eating cornflakes instead of a full English to build me up. Yesterday we were expecting a nurse to come and change Pat’s dressing. I phoned at 5.45 and asked where the nurse was only to be told it had been deferred until today. I blew my top: why didn’t we get a phone call? This happened last Tuesday as well, but they managed to find a nurse quick after my mid-day call. Last night two ‘Twilight’ nurses came and changed Pat’s dressing. No doubt the day nurse will turn up today. Or maybe not.

Now, I have a BIG, BIG decision to make. Tuppence is coming home on Monday. She’s been having a wonderful time with two doggy friends, playing together, going down the beach and even going in the sea. Now, our No.2 son, Terry, has suggested that he takes Tuppence to live with him and their little dog, Saxon, until…. Well, even Terry couldn’t say ‘Until Mum dies’. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? I have to admit that it would probably be fairer to Tuppence, rather than getting under my feet, getting into trouble and not getting the exercise she needs every day. The problem of course is me: I don’t want the little blighter to go. But my heart needs to be ruled by my head in this case. My son is coming over tomorrow to talk about it and will almost certainly persuade me that it’s the right thing to do, given the circumstances.

 

Now, about my book world. We won’t even talk about my book sales. I made a decision to finish with Voracious Readers. Over the last year I’ve attracted about 300 subscribers through giving away The Devil’s Trinity. (A lot of them unsubscribed as soon as they had the book). I think I attracted a handful of reviews on Goodreads. I’ve been thinking for a while about finishing with them, but it took a new venture to persuade me. I’ve joined in a promotion being run by a 10K FB author Mike Donald. He’s new at it and wanted to give it a shot. But to achieve the email sign-ups, I had to upgrade my Book Funnel account. I did this and cancelled my VR account. Works out about the same price each year anyway. Once Mike has all his ducks lined up in a row, he’ll start the ball rolling. It will take very little of my time to support the promo although I don’t hold out much hope for it; these things never seem to work for me.  So, all I have to do is hang on to that hope and make a decision about Tuppence. Wish me luck!

With love comes hope.

1^st. August 2020

If I had to write up a detailed report of what has happened to Pat this last week, I would be able to publish it in book form such would be the number of pages. Suffice it to say we have had four visits from medical professionals, a late evening consultation with an emergency nurse, and the delivery of a contraption to help Pat get up and down: the first of several items promised, including a hospital bed. In the seven days since my last blog post, Pat has had one good day. She was so bright, I even managed to persuade her to let me take her out for a drive. This meant the ramp had to be assembled, but that didn’t prove a problem. In fact, I was so pleased with it, I gave it a second coat of paint. If Pat recovers some of her good health, I will get her out a little more often, but at the moment she is too unwell.

 

My book sales are just holding at one sale a day spread between Amazon and D2D. Total sales 31. Cost of ads? Massive! Doesn’t make sense to carry on at the rate I’m spending money. But I remain optimistic and will start another campaign on BookBub, which seems to outsell Amazon in my case, and keep an eye on targeting etc. I do have small opportunities from time to time to look at my results and figure out what kind of changes might improve my sales. What I can’t do though is spend time on videos and following explicit instructions.

 

Oh, I made a pitch to an on-line publisher too. Well, not so much a pitch, but a tongue in cheek approach that will almost certainly yield nothing. The SPF bosses, James Blatch and Mark Dawson, have set up an on-line publishing company called Fuse Books. They have one author on their books (yes, one). They have asked the members of the SPF group for crime/mystery submissions but have warned that they will only take on a couple of authors with at least 3 books in a series. My tongue in cheek submission was to offer my three Marcus Blake thrillers which were never intended as a series. A betting man wouldn’t put money on my books even getting past first post, but I live in hope.

 

A book was released on Amazon yesterday: one in which I contributed a small piece. It’s called With love, comes hope: stories & inspiration during the 2020 pandemic. It’s available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Comes-Hope-Inspiration-Pandemic-ebook/dp/B08CRWWT82, and all proceeds go to Bridge 2 international humanitarian charity based in Guernsey. Why not have a look? My piece is on page 242.

 

I made a decision this afternoon to send Tuppence away for a short period, simply to stop her leaping all over Pat, getting under our feet, barking at every Tom, Dick & Harry, and generally being a nuisance whenever the nurses or paramedics turn up. I contacted Barking Mad, a franchise dog boarding organisation I’ve used a few times, and within one hour, the agent was here having sourced a ‘host’ for Tuppence. The woman who will be looking after Tuppence has had her before. So, two hours after making the decision, Tuppence has gone and peace reigns in the house. Aahh….. Wish me luck. (Well, Tuppence really).

How many?

18^th. July 2020

Well, I said the pattern may not change but the intensity will, and I wasn’t far out. Pat’s demands became intense to the point of me having to change her up to ten times in a 24 hour period for about three days. The conversations I had with the medical people were mounting, and eventually a GP came to the house. Two days later once the blood test results were known, she was put into an ambulance and taken to hospital. But instead of invasive intravenous treatment, it was decided by the consultant, after talking to what he referred to as the ‘ECHO’ team, that Pat would continue with the antibiotic tablets the GP had prescribed, and she was released the next day into my hands as her carer to continue with her palliative care. There was a discussion about this of course, but the next event, which will probably be sooner rather than later, will almost certainly involve hospice care with the implication that comes with that.

So, what about my other world? I’ve been invited by Lucinda Clarke to be her nominated author of the month on her blog post. I was pleased and surprised. I’ve followed Lucinda for some time, and she produces an amazingly informative and professional looking blog post. It might happen next month, but I won’t complain if Lucinda puts it off until September.

For some reason, I am receiving a flow of emails from individuals offering to review my books. I’ve no idea why this has happened; perhaps something I triggered inadvertently. I think I know what these people are about, and it can only be a ruse to get money out of me, which I’m not about to fall for. And while I’m on the subject of reviews, I dismayed with the paucity of reviews I get from the readers who sign up to my email list in return for my freebie, The Devil’s Trinity’. I collect my subscribers almost entirely through Voracious Readers and add about three of four a week. I only pay VR pro rata, which is about £7 a month, but I’m seriously considering giving it up and falling back on the offer that is on my website for the same book.

My advertising campaigns are showing an improvement with the BookBub ads, but still nothing with Amazon. I closed the campaign for my WW2 book because that sold nothing, and then opened a new campaign for my crime/mystery thriller, No Time to Die. So far, nothing has stirred in that campaign. Meanwhile, I’m selling about one book every other day through my BB campaign, and this is reflected in my D2D sales. And yesterday I sold three copies of The Eagle’s Covenant as a result of a promotion with a site called Book Adrenaline. This group was recommended by David Gaughran in a blog post, so I was happy to give them a try.

We all like a laugh now and then, right? But a laugh at ourselves? As a result of my inability to read the Amazon product pages correctly, I managed to order two scrubbing brushes (I wanted one); three jars of Vaseline (I wanted one); four, 400g bags of ceramic bio rings for my fish tank (I wanted one bag), and twelve pink flannels (I wanted two). Mea Culpa; no-one to blame but myself. Anyone want 1.2 kg of ceramic bio-rings? Going cheap! Maybe one day I’ll look at the Amazon product pages properly and might find my books languishing at a ranking of 100 instead of the usual 100,000, and not even notice. You never know. Wish me luck!

Now I know what King Sisyphus felt like!

11^th. July 2020

My poor Pat. I thought I’d lost her last Monday. I phoned the surgery to get some advice and told them I wasn’t asking for more pills because she has just about had enough and won’t take any tablets. Neither was she eating. After a discussion with a paramedic and the GP, it was decided to pass on this and see what help our local hospice can offer. We’ve been under the watchful eye of St. Wilfrid’s Hospice since last December, with regular communication, so it was no surprise to them when I rang. Our usual contact, Andy, came out to see Pat on Wednesday, spent an hour with us and explained what we could expect and what they would do if and when it was needed. He didn’t have to be economical with the facts; we already know what to expect. Fortunately, Pat has picked up a little, but I know it won’t last. She is very frail, both physically and mentally. So, I soldier on and wonder how much longer it will go on.

My Facebook ad for June cost me £175. My royalties were about one third of that. It doesn’t take a great mathematician to figure out the ROI sucks. But if I had the balls to follow the expert’s advice, I would press on and throw more money at it. Trouble is, I can’t be bothered. Whatever I throw FB’s way will only make Jeff Bezos richer, but not Mick Parker. This month I am back on Amazon who are afraid to take my money. I scaled up in an effort to attract readers and sales, but I’ve still sold nothing. And so far I’ve spent $5.37. And it’s not for the want of trying. I’m advertising with BookBub as well, and have sold eight books on D2D, which is where my BB ads tend to populate. This has cost $50 so far. So, not good either. Looking back at those figures, it would make sense to ditch BB and Facebook and throw the money at Amazon.

I’m still reading Paul Asling’s book about Westminster Wars. I know Paul has a lot of fans, so he should do OK with this book; I’m sure they will lap it up. I’m about halfway through, so might have it finished by next week.

I had a phone call from Spain this week to tell me my old snooker mate, Richard (Ricardo) had passed away. Ricardo and I played snooker every week for about ten years. We always had a laugh. Sometimes he would beat me, other times I would win. We were both Speedway fans too and spent a lot of time talking about the sport. Although not together, we both travelled over to Cardiff each year for the British Speedway Grand Prix at the Millenium stadium (now called the ‘Principality Stadium’). Great times. I was sad to hear of his passing, but that’s life. He was 84.

One other task I’ve been involved in this week is the garden. Hands up who likes gardening? I need a young, strong teenager to volunteer to work in my garden at the minimum wage, but while I’m keeping Jeff Bezos in small change, I can’t afford it. But if I offered, say £20 for a couple of hours work, it might be worth it. But it’s unlikely I’ll find any youngster willing to take it on. Not at that price anyway; not enough to keep them in spliffs for a week.

So what next? The pattern may not change, but I expect the intensity will. Wish me luck!

Hoping for a lot of luck

Pat’s situation is getting slowly worse. Small drops each day, and little to inspire any hope. Talking to others who have found themselves in this situation simply confirms the direction her illness is taking her, but not the longevity; it could be a few months or maybe a few years. I find my levels of frustration are only matched by my feelings of guilt when I get annoyed with her, because I know that none of this is her fault. You learn a lot about yourself in a situation like this: levels of patience; fortitude; mental strength; physical strength. Fortunately, Pat is sleeping a lot better, but to counter that blessing, she isn’t eating and is refusing to take her pills. It’s difficult.

Looking at the marginally brighter side of life, I can now watch the ‘footie’ on TV. I hadn’t planned to watch so much, but I’m afraid that’s another of my weaknesses. And it interferes with my reading time too. Currently I’m reading my Chindi colleague Paul Asling’s crime thriller Wars in West London. You can see it at https://www.amazon.co.uk/CARTERS-WARS-WEST-LONDON-ebook/dp/B08BVWS9RJ.

And on the subject of Chindi authors, I would like to introduce you to Isabella Muir whose latest crime novel, Crossing the Line was published today. You can learn more of Isabella and her history, her previous literary work, and where her new genre is taking her with this link: https://www.isabellamuir.com. I think Isabella will probably be joining the ranks of best-seller fairly soon.

My ambitious attempt at creating a different kind of campaign on Amazon has resulted in precisely zero sales so far. Ironically, my recently started campaign on Book Bub ads had given me two sales. The Amazon ad was constructed using the advice of ex Amazon marketing professional, Jane Margot, while the BB ad was constructed simply and wholly by ‘yours truly’. I don’t blame anyone for my failures, but I couldn’t help smiling to myself when I saw on Bryan Cohen’s Ad school (of which I am an alumni) that he currently had over 1300 ads running. Now I know why I’m not selling! (Yes, that’s right: 1300!)

I’ve been coming up with some terrific opening scenes for my latest WIP. This was the one I started four week ago with the plan to knock out 60,000 words by the end of July. So far I’ve written 1200 words. I managed to produce an opening in which two mysteries need to be solved. One at the beginning of the chapter, and the other at the end: all separated by 1200 words. And I haven’t a clue what the mysteries are. It makes it fun writing something like that providing I can come up with an answer, but at my present rate of progress, it’s unlikely.

So, today is July 4^th. Independence Day. Our American friends will need to be extremely careful about their Independence Day celebrations if what I understand about their pandemic figures is correct. And likewise we British have to be careful too because the Press are dubbing this day as our Independence Day. We can all go to the pub! I usually finish my blog post asking you all to wish me luck, but today I think we ALL need a huge chunk of it. Stay home and stay safe.

Managing the excitement levels.

27^th June 2020

Life is still up and down for Pat, and consequently for me too. Good days and bad days, good nights and bad nights; all served up in a haphazard fashion and never knowing which way the coin will fall. Pat is back on antibiotics again having just finished last Wednesday. Our local GP made a house call last night to check Pat out for himself. He gave us the option of having her admitted to hospital so the infection she has, which won’t go away, can be dealt with intravenously, but we (Pat) turned that down. The doctor understood why and wrote the prescription so I could treat Pat here at home.

I got to thinking about levels of excitement the other day, and how they impact on our daily lives. For me and Pat, like most people, we’ve had our fair share. Sometimes an unexpected gift or windfall. A visit from a family member. A holiday abroad for the first time. Babies arriving — four in our house! Moving to Spain and enjoying a big villa with a big pool. Pat and I used to like skinny dipping late in the evening in the pool. It did wonders for my excitement levels, as you can imagine. But as we approach our final years, the excitement levels are moderate and less frequent. With Pat’s condition, I can get excited if she manages to finish the small meal I cooked for her, or if she manages to sleep through the night. Life can be fun, can’t it?

But my excitement level went up a notch during the week: I heard from Joffe Books, and they have scheduled publication of my book, Past Imperfect for the autumn. I wanted to swing Pat around like I did years ago each time my publisher agreed to publish my latest manuscript. But Pat’s emotional responses are miniscule, so I had to enjoy the moment in solitude. However, it will happen and I’m tremendously excited about getting in with such a successful company. I know one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but with luck I may be able to persuade Joffe Books to take on more of my other titles. We’ll see.

I’ve started an advertising campaign on Amazon but have taken the advice of a new member of Mark Dawson’s long list of experts: Janet Margot. Janet worked for Amazon for eight years on the ads team and brings a new kind of expertise to Mark’s team. Her advice was to begin a campaign (for beginners) with one book and run two ads: one with auto targeting, the other with manual (keywords). I decided to try with my World War 2 thriller, Shadow of the Wolf. By stepping away from A&A, thrillers, crime etc., I believe I can have a better idea of what kind of impact my ads have. So far, very little has happened. I’ll give it a few days before I start tinkering. Will this turn out to be a successful campaign for me? Hope so. Wish me luck.

Puffing out my cheeks...

20^th. June 2020

Another up and down week with Pat, but she’s still holding strong. Her sleep patterns are all over the place, which means mine are. My eldest son said its like having a baby in the house. I had to take her to A&E during the week after a phone consultation with a paramedic. We were in the hospital for five hours, but they were able to complete the necessary tests before discharging her with a prescription for antibiotics. No doubt we’ll tread this path again sometime in the future, but there is little option to do otherwise. We did have a couple of brighter moments when our number two son, Terry came over with our grandson Adam. We had a fish & chip lunch in the garden, social distancing in place of course, and enjoyed the sunshine and being in close proximity with them. Then on Friday, our number three son, John came over. He brought beers, homemade scones with clotted cream and jams, four frozen spag bole meals for me that he’d cooked himself and a curry. Lovely boy. So it’s not all doom and gloom. Well, not until we get on to my book world.

Last week I said I might consider writing an entry for Amazon’s annual KDP competition. Having worked out the numbers I made a start. One week later I’ve managed 800 words and know that it isn’t going to happen, not even if I force myself to write. And as I sit here writing this blog, Royal Ascot is on the TV. Frankie Dettori has won five out of five races. It must be dispiriting for the other jockeys knowing they’re up against one of the best jockeys in the world. And he hasn’t always been on the favourite; he just happens to be bloody good at what he does. And so it is in my book world: there will be writers who succeed in whatever they take on because they’re so good, while others, like me, only threaten to do something. If I was a racehorse, you wouldn’t put money on me.

My advertising campaigns finished during the week. I sold a total of 48 books, which isn’t too bad, but now the sales will fall off the edge of a cliff unless I’m prepared to spend more money, which I’m not. Not at the moment anyway. It’s a sad fact of a writer’s life that advertising is a necessary evil, costly too while you go through the learning curve. I’ve been going through this learning curve for some considerable time, but I think it needs more application on my part. My next campaign will almost certainly be on Amazon, but I will be paying closer attention to all the information I have (and have paid for) in the hope that I can achieve a better ROI and see some significant change in my monthly sales.

I watched the drama, The Salisbury Poisonings during the week. I looked at it like a thriller writer might, but in this case I would have dispatched my tough guy hero off to Russia to quietly dispose of the two men identified by the British government as perpetrators of the poisonings and the subsequent death of an innocent woman, Dawn Sturgess. I did wonder if those two Russians survived being identified on British TV and made to look like absolute chumps trying to pretend they flew all the way from Moscow just to see the spire at Salisbury Cathedral, and then cut their visit short because the weather turned. No doubt some thriller writer is beavering away writing the book already. And me? Well, I did start the sequel to my pulp fiction thriller, Hunted. My tough guy hero arrives incognito in Russia and spends several months odd-jobbing and developing his colloquial Russian as he searches for the man he had been ordered to bring back to England. All it needs is a couple of changes and I would have the makings of the Salisbury sequel. Could I do it? Not this jockey! Wish me luck! 

Behind the scenes

13^th. June 2020.

I watched the ITV documentary ‘Living with Dementia’ this week featuring Ross Kemp talking to two families who are living with the curse of knowing their loved ones have this disease. I was able to recognise the early signs that I see in Pat, and I’m caught up in the dilemma that is familiar to so many people who have gone through it. Pat’s cancer may take her first before her mind becomes so confused she has to go into full time care and suffer all that entails, but what do I hope for? Whatever way the coin lands, we lose. All I can do as time progresses is to make sure I look after Pat completely and totally.

Have you ever been on the cusp of something? I feel as though I’m on the cusp of some fairly good book sales, but I don’t know how to make sure the numbers grow. My Facebook campaign has resulted in nineteen sales of The Boy from Berlin so far this month, while the legacy of a cross promotion I shared at the beginning of the month for No Time to Die, has resulted in fifteen sales. Meanwhile, on D2D I have sold seven books so far. All told that’s forty-one, which is just over three a day: better than last month. I’m still not making a profit, but I’m quite close. However, it could all taper off unless I find a way of “scaling up”. There are several ways of doing this, and invariably means spending more money, buy at least it has given me something to work on and hope I can lift the graph and end up with a smile on my face.

In a couple of weeks’ time I’ll be promoting a fellow CHINDI author, Isabella Muir, who has written a crime mystery set in West Sussex. I can’t give the title of the book yet because it happens to be the same as a best-seller I downloaded at the beginning of the week and am still reading. It’s an eBook written by a retired policeman, but it isn’t a thriller; more a resumé of his career in the Met. I’m enjoying the book despite it having a lot of statistics in it about crime. One thing I can say though, as a result of reading the book, I know that the violent demonstrations that are going on in London will be policed in such a way that the public will be unaware of the enormous effort that goes on behind the scenes while the violence is perpetrated by the zealots.

And on the subject of fellow CHINDI authors, I must congratulate Angela Petch whose book sales have passed the 100,000 mark. It’s great to be in the company of some stellar writers. Hopefully some of the stardust will rub off on me.

Most of you will know that I stopped writing last year so I could spend more time with Pat. The desire to write didn’t go away, but the inclination did. I’ve become used to the idea now, but last night I found myself considering an entry into Amazon’s yearly competition for the best eBook of the year. It has to be self-published on Amazon by the end of August. I did some simple maths. One thousand words a day would get me to August 12^th for a 60,000 word novel. That would leave less than three weeks for editing, cover design, etc. before submitting it to KDP on or before the last day in August. It’s possible, except that I haven’t got a clue what to write, and doubt very much if I could even challenge the entries that usually win this kind of prize. I don’t watch much TV now, so would have no excuse about lacking the time. I’m not on the go all day long and do have my quiet times (when I’m usually asleep). So maybe it would give me something to focus on alongside the need to watch over Pat. Who knows? I may even do it. At least it would mean another book to add to my growing list. Wish me luck!

The book they tried to ban.

June 6^th. 2020

One week moves effortlessly into another week, and for many of us it all seems repetitive. For some its because of the lockdown, but in my case its about looking after Pat. There has been a little change in her condition: marginal improvements here and there, but she still needs constant attention. She is no stronger but at least she is eating a little better and holding her weight at seven stone. I hope we can get that higher. We manage to get out more. In the morning I take her with me and the dog for a walk. During the afternoon we go for a drive. We’ve been to four seaside resorts and managed to walk along the prom at two of them. Pat’s in the wheelchair of course. When I’ve finished this blog, we’ll take a drive again, but no walk because it’s raining.

My book world has thrown up some interesting stuff, mainly Facebook. My ads have worked OK, and I decided to run the campaign for my book, The Boy from Berlin again. It ran for about twelve hours and was then stopped because it didn’t adhere to FB’s ad policy. Took me a while to figure that one out, seeing as it had run fine for the whole of May. Turns out that FB did not like the use of my headline referring to a white racist front runner for the presidency. That was an extract from the first line of the blurb, but FB suddenly discovered they didn’t like it. Once I’d amended the text, the ad was accepted and being served again. I have also run the same ad in UK; I want to see how one does against the other: one in USA, the other in UK. Strange thing though about the American angle. When I tried to put that up for a featured deal on Book Bub, it was rejected for USA but allowed for Canada, UK and Australia. Obviously my headlines touched sensitive nerves in this American presidential election year. I wondered how I could capitalise on the double rejection and advertise the book as “The book they tried to ban!”. It would definitely sell well then.

My other title, No Time to Die, has been on a four-day promotion, and to date I have sold 12 copies. The price was reduced to 0.99, which helped, but later today or tomorrow, I’ll be putting the price back up. My sales this month are 23 so far, just over three a day. I wonder how long I can sustain that? I need to keep an eye on my advertising costs though. I’m also running a campaign on Book Bub, but that is low key.

I finished reading Glass Dolls by D.E.White. I enjoyed the book but found it a little repetitive at times. At least I finished it, but I would probably only award it four stars. I’ve just started The Chain by Adrian McKinty. It has attracted all kinds of five-star quotes from well-known writers, so it should be good. I just hope I can get used to McKinty’s odd writing style. We’ll see.

Next for me is to learn a little more about FB advertising, and to start studying Mark Dawson’s latest Amazon Ads for Authors course (I’m already a paid-up member). He claims it is probably the best course of its kind currently available anywhere online having recruited ex-Amazonian, Janet Margot and persuaded her to compile the whole thing. Maybe one day I’ll know how its done. Wish me luck!

Sales of the Unexpected

30th. May 2020

Almost half-way through the year and there’s no let-up in Pat’s condition, and a worrying sign now of a progressive deterioration. We are now under the watchful eye of our local hospice, St. Wilfrid’s, and had a nurse round on Thursday for a general chat and more pertinent questions about Pat and the prognosis. We still live in hopes of some sort of stabilisation and control, but it’s doubtful. We have at least been able to enjoy the good weather. Pat has now been out with me and Tuppence for a walk at a local recreational field. I take Pat in the wheelchair because it’s easy to push her over the flat green while Tuppence goes chasing her ball and playing with other dogs. I’ve also taken Pat out for a drive twice this week. Yesterday we had a trip to East Wittering. Couldn’t get out of the car of course, because we had Tuppence with us, but it was another way of mixing up Pat’s usually boring day. Now that the lockdown rules are being relaxed, we can expect a few more visits from our family, social distancing notwithstanding of course.

As you know, I have been running an ad. Campaign on Facebook and BookBub. The ads are costing me money but showing some signs of life. Before that my sales were dribbling along and doing very little. This month though I have seen some significant change with my KDP sales on Amazon, averaging about 2 sales a day. On D2D my sales were not performing as well as last month, having only reached 17 by about the 24^th, six days ago. Then suddenly there was a jump of 19 in one day, from 17 up to 36. I was bowled over by that. Then the next day the figure leapt up to 47. I couldn’t believe it. So much so that I expected to see the figure corrected downwards within a day or so. But it has held on and I’m at 48 with one day of the month left. In fact, D2D is out-performing Amazon. The book that’s leading the sales figure is A Dangerous Game. I haven’t advertised that book in any way, so I’ve no idea why this phenomenon has happened. I’m not complaining though. My next task is to run another campaign but with a slightly different approach: I intend to test one country against another. Same ad for USA and for UK but separated. I will also be using the advice offered to Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ad School students by Alana Terry, a Christian mystery writer who has turned FB advertising into an art form and increased her book sales exponentially. I hope she has something significant to offer that others in the FB tutorial world have not. I’ve watched about a third of the video so far and she has already given me some good stuff to work with.  I’ll be running a new campaign for the month of June, see how it goes.

My reading this week is still Glass Dolls. It’s growing on me, so I reckon I’ll get through to the end with this one.

I will be involved in a book promotion next week: first four days of June. I’ll be promoting 17 other authors covering about 60,000 subscribers. Hopefully my offer, No Time to Die will attract some attention. It’s already doing so with page reads on KDP because of my FB ad. I don’t want to burst my own bubble, but the interaction I’m seeing with sales, ‘likes’, page views and people looking at my profile, is definitely growing. It would be nice to think I can establish a firm, committed fan base which could push me into a significantly higher Amazon ranking. Just got to spend more money — no brainer!

That’s it then. I wish you all well and stay safe! 

Half full or half empty?

May 23^rd. 2020

It has been a week now since Pat was discharged from hospital and signed off from cancer treatment, but that does not stop her getting unwell. We have not slept in our bed all week, and last night was pretty torrid: the worse yet. At 2.30 Pat could not muster a sensible word or settle down. As a result I phoned the ECHO service at 4.30. That was followed by a phone consultation with a doctor, and a Paramedic was dispatched to check Pat over. We had the antibiotic in our hands at 7.30. So hats off to the NHS system; it worked really well. Now we have to try and get Pat stronger. I will be arranging a phone call with our local GP to talk about the problem and asking how we will be expected to deal with this now Pat is no longer a cancer patient, bearing in mind she still has the cancer.

Having got beyond the need for sleep, I enjoyed a Zoom meeting at mid-day with our family. This was for the Parker International Quiz challenge: a recently inaugurated trophy for the Parker family. It has to be international and at mid-day because of the Aussie grandson, Sam who lives in America, and the Aussie son, Stephen, who is Sam’s dad. There were three teams, and would you believe it? We all scored 21 points. Hmm! There is a plan to do this again in a couple of weeks. Must get into shape for that.

My reading this week is Glass Dolls by D.E.White. It’s a murder mystery. Looks pretty good so far and comes recommended from a good source. My book sales are still holding their own: I’m averaging two books a day on Kindle, and just over one a day on D2D.And now D2D have made all their books available on a new French site called Vivlio. Sounds good although I’m not sure it will make much difference to me. But it’s another outlet, so well done D2D.

Like many writers, I have faith in my own ability, but often come across books whose authors I would happily concede to. One that particularly comes to mind, from the moment I finished reading it a few years ago is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I watched the film this week. It’s the second time I’ve seen it and will probably watch it again some time. Sadly, the book’s author, Mary Ann Shaffer, died the year it was published. Her niece, Annie Barrows helped her aunt finish the book. If there was one book I wish I could have written (there are probably more of course), then that’s it. If you haven’t read the book, put it on your ‘must read’ list.

I’ve signed up for a cross-promotion with author David De Lee. The promotion will bring about seventeen authors together offering a book for free or $0.99, for four days at the beginning of June. I’ve been involved with David before, and his promotions usually do well. Naturally I’ll be sending the details out to my subscribers and will also mention it on my blog post for that week. Should be good. Wish me luck!

Down in the dumps

May 16^th. 2020

Pat came home from hospital yesterday but has now declined further treatment. This means we are heading into the unknown. Whatever comes, we have to face it because, sadly, that’s life. My hope is that I can give Pat a quality of life that will sustain her for however long she has. I’m sitting beside her at the moment, writing this blog post while she is watching TV. I took her for a slow and gentle walk round the garden just now so she could see what I’d been up to while she’s been away. I’m struggling with the compulsion to finish writing a blog post each week, and to abandon all thoughts of book sales, promotions etc., but that might be counter-productive; I need to keep my spirits up somehow while making sure I don’t neglect Pat.

My book sales are steady. So far this month I have sold 45 ebooks and a couple of paperbacks. And my page reads are trickling along nicely. This is all down to my current campaign on Facebook although needless to say it is costing me money. But I’m sticking with it. The majority of the sales are for The Boy from Berlin of course, and it’s good to see some of my other titles selling as well.

I have to say I have given up with Joffe Books. There has been no word since the last email saying they still wanted to publish my book Past Imperfect, and they would let me know after their ‘big’ meeting to discuss back titles. I know it might happen, but it no longer seems important.

How are you all coping with the lockdown and everything that entails? We have a family visit this afternoon. Our No.2 son, Terry, is coming over with our grand-daughter, Gemma and our great-grandson, Orin. They will go through to the back garden and have their lunch while me and Pat chat to them from our bedroom window. It would be nice to sit out there with them and keep our social distance, but unfortunately little Orin might want to run over and give me and Pat a hug, and that is a risk we cannot afford to take, even though we are quite sure Orin doesn’t have the bug, nor do his mum and grandad. We have to stay safe. Even more so now with Pat’s condition.

I’ve stopped reading Alex Shaw’s thriller. I did try but just couldn’t stick with it. I think it’s more my problem than the quality of the book, but it is, in my opinion, formulaic writing: writing for a market. Bit like the Die Hard films really and their ilk. I watched Lethal Weapon 2 on Sky during the week. Pure, over the top entertainment: just the kind of thing you find in a lot of action books that sell well. I wasn’t tempted to watch Lethal Weapon 3 the following night though; there’s only so much dross you can take, isn’t there?

Well, that’s my lot for this week. I might write another post next week. If I had something exciting to share with you, I would. Hope you are all staying safe and in good health.

Life can be a four-letter word at times

May 10^th. 2020

I would like to say this has been a good week for Pat but I can’t. Since being discharged from hospital, it has been mostly downhill. We learned that as a result of her CT scan last week, her final chemo session has been cancelled (not postponed) and the PET scan due later this month is not going to happen. We have a phone consultation this coming Tuesday with the consultant when I think he will dot the eyes and cross the tees for us. We are clinging to the hope that there will be other options. I’ve already taken Pat off one of her pills because of a problem the haematologist couldn’t solve for us: something I thought I would never do, but I reckon most people who have cared long term for a family member would recognise decisions like this. So now we wait for the outcome of the phone call. Our sleep patterns are virtually non-existent now, and it usually depends on Pat where and how and for how long we sleep. I won’t leave her on her own, so when she’s awake, I’m awake.

 

I can say however that I gave both my girls a bath this morning. Neither of them enjoyed it. Tuppence went mad when I’d finished with the blow drier and had a crazy run round the house and the garden. I think she was drying herself off. Thank goodness Pat didn’t try something like that. I wish she could have a run round the garden though. Tomorrow I might give Tuppence a clipping.

In my book world I can see the benefit of using Facebook ads over Amazon. Since the 19^th April I have sold 53 books and had 330 page reads. For me that is phenomenal. I’m still losing money on costs against revenue, but that’s something I’m prepared to do. For now anyway. I’ve also picked up five sales on D2D but that may not have anything to do with FB ads. Taking the page reads into account, the average is about three books a day. Not bad, eh?

My creative spark has disappeared: it went long ago, and now I don’t even bother with reading through the training videos on Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ads School, nor those on the Mark Dawson SPF 101 course. These are things I may pick up again in the fullness of time; after all, I have paid for them.

My current reading, Alex Shaw’s Cold East is difficult. This has nothing to do with the current situation in the Parker household, nor what is going on in the outside world: I just don’t feel drawn to the book at all, and only manage a few pages a day. My other avenue of attraction now is the garden. I’ve done a lot of weed clearing and have planted seedlings ready to move into those spaces I have cleared. I’ve also tackled the weeds out front with my hot burner weed killer. It’s like an elongated hair dryer and burns weeds at 2000 degrees C. But I still get on my hands and knees to tackle some of the stuff.

Incidentally, I received an email from David Gaughran: someone I have been following for a few years having bought one of his self-help books. He’s well known in the book world. He loves data: uses it a lot to break down the mysteries of the indie publishing world. He uncovered a strange set of figures from Amazon’s own pages on the comparison between ‘best-sellers’, and ‘most popular’. He chose the top ten thrillers and space operas genres, and of all the permutations, only one book featured in the top ten. The top ten in both categories did not match in a straightforward, side by side comparison, nor did the publishers, and the only consistently high publishers were ‘self-published’ in Space Opera. David Gaughran wondered how Amazon could rely on their own algorithms with those kind of contradictory figures. Needless to say, none of my books were in there. One day, maybe. Wish me luck!

Not so splendid isolation

May 2^nd. 2020

This time last week, Pat was in hospital and was discharged during the afternoon, which I thought was a bit quick. This Wednesday she was taken back into hospital because the infection was still raging through her body. Thankfully it is now under control and we are expecting her to be discharged either today or tomorrow. She had a CT scan yesterday which helped. At least her brain was clear; something I was worried about because of her stroke last year. But she’s OK now. I phone her four times a day because there are no visitors allowed and virtually nothing for her to do in her single room. I can’t wait to have her back home.

Naturally, Pat’s absence has given me plenty of time to work in the garden pulling up weeds, filling hanging baskets and mowing the lawn. Yesterday afternoon, having already done a bunch of weeding that morning, I decided to watch an SPF podcast. It was Evan Gow of Story Origin, a book promotional group of which I am a member. Naturally, I was keen to see Evan and what he had to tell us, but I fell asleep and only woke when James Blatch was winding up the podcast with Mark Dawson. I decided not to look at it again until later and forced myself to go outside and carry on with the weeding.

My latest read is Cold East by Alex Shaw. It isn’t too bad and basically does “what it says on the tin”. Shaw is a competent writer, successful too, so I can’t say he isn’t well read. But it’s a book that is written for a market. And I think that is one of my failings; I don’t write for the market. I’ve often wondered, although maybe not anymore, why my books are poor competition for other thriller writers that inhabit the genres in which I write. I have no doubts about my ability, never have, but other writers nail it consistently, while I struggle to attract a firm readership. I think the answer lies in the fact that I write by inspiration: I get an idea in my head, maybe from a news item, or perhaps some occurrence in my life that triggers a story. I then research the idea and write the story. This inevitably means I am writing for myself and not the market I’m trying to crack. Is that a lesson learned for me? Has to be, right? So what can I do about it? While I’ve been looking after Pat (eighteen months now), I have struggled to put pen to paper, and now have no inclination to write. The desire hasn’t left me, but the thought of preparing a draft copy and all the research that’s necessary, just leaves me cold. But there is also an underlying reason for that: by attempting to write to a market, I cannot get enthusiastic about a project. It’s almost as if I’m prostituting myself on the altar of market necessity, and that’s ruining whatever story I try to come up with. So well done to Alex Shaw and all his contemporaries; they’ve got it cracked.

I’ve had a little run of success with my Facebook ads programme. I managed to sell 25 books in eleven days. When you consider my average organic sales are about ten a month, that result could put me closer to sixty or seventy. Trouble is that its costing me money. My royalties are slightly lower that my ad spend. But that’s something I have to expect for a while; I simply need to learn more and not fall asleep when I’m watching a training video.

No news yet from Joffe Books. Wish me luck!

More than just a mixed bag

25^th. April 2020

Quite a mixed week for me one way or another. Pat had her chemo on Monday and by Wednesday she was very ill. She ended up in hospital of course, and I thank God for the way the system works in the case of cancer patients like Pat. Within an hour of calling the emergency ‘bleep’ number, Pat was in isolation, piped up to antibiotics with two nurses and a doctor in attendance. She’s home now, four days later and a whole lot better. Her chemo for next Monday has been postponed for a week. Me and the Tuppence are a lot happier now.

And talking about our dog, I had to resort to giving her a shower, blow dry and a clipping. She was due a full groom on Friday, but because of the lockdown, no grooming parlours are open. She wasn’t keen on my attempts to clip her with the electric trimmer, so I had to resort to snipping off bits of fur where I could get at it. I will try again because I can’t let the poor thing go too long without some sort of attention.

On the book front, I finally finished Scott Mariani’s book and have now downloaded Alex Shaw’s thriller, Cold East. I met Alex two years ago in Worthing at a book event. Since then we have followed each other on Facebook. Alex has just signed a two-book deal with Harper Collins. He is already with that digital outfit and very successful too. I’ll start it sometime this week and let you know what I think,

Joffe Books. Yes, I finally relented and contacted them, asking if there was any progress with Past Imperfect. Its been nine weeks since I uploaded the files they asked for. They said they still wanted to publish my book, but they had a big meeting coming up about their backlists and would be getting back to me. It sounded more like “don’t call us; we’ll call you”. I hope not because it was Joffe Books who approached me and not the other way around. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that.

My efforts at AMS ads has been abysmal, so I decided to put The Boy from Berlin up on Facebook; see how it went. I launched a fairly straightforward campaign and have sold twelve books in six days. And I am in profit even taking into account the VAT on the ads costs. It’s a very small profit but encouraging to say the least. I need to bite the bullet with AMS and increase my daily budget if I’m to compete with FB, but that will need a lot of thought.

And during the week I got signed up as an official carer for Pat. I have had calls from the two organisations involved and received a card for my wallet in case I end up in hospital unexpectedly. This will alert the emergency services to the fact that I look after Pat. I’ll also be getting a key safe for the outside of the house. Its amazing what kind of services there are out there for people who need them. And we are also being contacted on a regular basis by our church here in Aldwick.

And while Pat was in hospital, it gave me the chance to get on with a lot of the jobs that need doing in the garden: weeding, grass cutting, planting hanging baskets and so on and so forth. I could write a book about it. Wish me luck!